The government is "struggling hugely" with entries to GCSE modern foreign languages, and "the situation is getting worse", a senior Department for Education official has admitted.

Josh Beattie, assistant director of the curriculum division of the DfE, also said he "selfishly" wished that Ofqual had lowered grade standards for French, German and Spanish at A-level to boost entries.

He was talking about the English Baccalaureate – which he leads on at the DfE – at an event in London today.

Mr Beattie admitted that EBacc entries had "plateaued", but highlighted language entries as his greatest area of concern.

"The one that’s really lagging behind, and the one we’re struggling hugely with is languages," he said.

"Languages have pretty much stagnated, the EBacc hasn’t had much effect."

Mr Beattie said there had been a "shallow decline" in language entries, "so the situation is getting worse in that respect".

According to provisional figures published by the DfE last month, EBacc languages dropped by 1.2 percentage points in 2018, with 46.1 per cent of students taking at least one language for GCSE, continuing a falling trend since 2014.

On GCSE results day, the DfE pointed out that nationally exam entries to MFL had increased, with rises in Spanish and German.

While entries fell in French, the DfE insisted they had "remained broadly stable in line with population change".